&w=64&q=75)
Members of market associations and numerous women groups in Kaduna State have reiterated their loyalty and support for President Bola Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani's administration.
Over the weekend, the demonstrators trooped to the Kaduna metropolis in their hundreds to peacefully express their feelings about recent developments in the polity.
They recounted their alleged bitter experiences under former Governor Nasiru El-Rufai's administration and affirmed their support for Sani.
The protesters advised Kaduna residents not to be deceived into opposing the incumbent governments at the state and federal levels.
This follows El-Rufai's defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
ALSO READ: SDP youths accuse El-Rufai of attempting to hijack the party, reject his defection
While announcing his exit from the APC, the former Governor claimed that his decision was influenced by misalignment of values with the ruling party.
Kaduna market associations, women slam El-Rufai
Meanwhile, the protesters recounted their ordeals during the previous administration's eight years, alleging that hundreds of market shops belonging to individuals were either seized, demolished or confiscated.
They said the situation triggered ill health in many traders and business owners, leading to paralysis and multiple deaths of their colleagues.
"We’ve been in the market for over 40 years and have never experienced the kind of set backs we suffered under the previous Governor,” Daniel Audu Maigari, a stakeholder of the Kaduna Market associations, has said.
“A lot of lives were lost,a lot of finances were ruined by reason of his kind of policies. We are here to speak with one voice and say that anything that would kind of revive such kind of philosophy in Kaduna market, we don’t want it.”
ALSO READ: Drop coalition talks; come and join SDP - El-Rufai tells Atiku, Obi, Aregbesola
Explaining further, Maigari said, “this incumbent Governor began by healing the wounds, the wounds that were really severed by the former Governor. Governor Uba Sani has been doing so,so very well and that’s why we’ve been with our leader, Alhaji Abdurrahman Mohammed, who like Governor Sani,has been charting the right course, ensuring programmes and plans that will heal these wounds.”
He added that there has never been a time when they have had the impact of leadership in the Kaduna market like they are now.
” Now we’ve lots of incentives, lots of policies that are driving us to progress .We are now standing with one voice to denounce anything that would reverse this,” he stated.
The protesters later marched to the streets, hoisting placards with various inscriptions denouncing the previous arrangements and chanting slogans supporting Tinubu, Sani and the APC.